1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a system and method for locating and contacting persons and facilities in a wireless network and specifically relates to identifying and contacting persons and facilities nearest to a requestor's location by use of a central location-tracking database.
2. Description of Related Art
Rapid advances are being made in the area of wireless communications. An increasing number of applications are being developed for wireless communications device platforms, ranging from smart cellular phones and wireless communicators, to two-way text pagers. Many of these products interface with location-tracking devices, such as Global Positioning System (“GPS”) receivers, that deliver real-time location based information and services to users of wireless communications devices (“WCDs”). The location-tracking capabilities of these devices give rise to the opportunity to solve two problems inherent in today's WCDs.
First, the current state of the art requires that WCDs be contacted using a unique identifier or number. If, for instance, two adjacent users of WCDs wish to contact each other, one user must know the unique identifier or number of the other user, or vice versa. Without the unique wireless communications device (“WCD”) identifier or number, a voice or data communication cannot be initiated although the two users can identify each other's position relative to their own positions. For example, if two cellular phone users separated by a distance of 50 meters wished to initiate communication via their cellular phones, but neither knew the other's unique identifier or number, one would have to shout or otherwise indicate their unique identifier to the other.
Similarly, two adjacent WCD users may not have compatible WCDs, so a direct link cannot be established. For instance, a cellular phone user currently may not be able to directly contact a user of a unidirectional or bidirectional pager (“pager”) or personal digital assistant (“PDA”) with a wireless area network interface.
Secondly, a key feature of today's WCDs is the safety they provide by enabling the user of such a device to contact emergency services when required. The current technology only has the capability to identify emergency services and facilities that are located within a fairly large area. Currently, cellular phone networks achieve the routing of emergency calls by identifying the particular mobile switching center immediately available to the cellular user. Thus, each mobile switching center is identified with a corresponding emergency facility.
The inherent disadvantage to this system is that the area covered by a particular mobile switching center can be quite large, encompassing tens of miles of roadway. While the current technology would enable a WCD user to contact an emergency facility located within that mobile switching center coverage area, it would necessarily ignore an ambulance or police cruiser sitting 50 meters adjacent to the WCD user. Furthermore, the current technology will only provide access to the particular emergency facility dedicated to a particular mobile switching center while there may be another appropriate emergency facility within a short distance of the WCD user.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above, and particularly for a system and method for personal and emergency service hailing in a wireless network.